Bah! Humbug! Challenge #9

Embossing: a technique to make a design stand out from the surface

I'm very excited to be making my Challenge cards this week as a member of the Design Team (thank you, Ann and Max). I tried to think of something a bit different without being too way out and hope that, if necessary, you will find my work gives you ideas for your own cards.

Having been a stamper for about 20 years my first thought when I read 'Embossing' involved powders and a heat gun! I made two complimentary panels using a very old, traditional wood mounted stamp by PSX, and a fairly new, clear unmounted one by Dimension Fourth, each stamped with Versamark and embossed with silver EP. They were too big for my original card idea so I made a Z fold card which embraces both and an insert, yet still fits into a standard C6 envelope. The sentiment is by Funstamps and was stamped in Brilliance ink; snowflake border punch by Fiskars.

Next is a 'crossover technique' card (aka, what do you mean by embossing?); the ornament is another PSX stamp embossed with Red Razzle Dazzle EP, cut out and mounted on a panel made with a Cuttlebug embossing folder from the 'Holiday' set.

Third card design goes way, way back. I once bought some ready made blanks printed with a grid of different size boxes into which you could stamp various images: very useful for incorporating those little stamps which often seem too small to have any use. I used to copy the idea and painstakingly draw out my own grids with ruler, pen and a few curses, but now the job is made so much easier with a score board! It's best to choose the images and plan your grid to fit them on paper first. Oh, and I had to cheat: thin embossed lines do not show up when scanned, so for illustration purposes only I went over them with ruler and pencil!

The red and gold card looks impressive (I hope) but was the quickest of the four to make, using a Dreamweaver stencil and gold embossing paste. It really couldn't be easier: tape stencil over card, apply paste, remove stencil and leave card to dry! For the background I used self adhesive red velvet paper on top of thin card, and stuck the finished panel to an A6 card - I did try layering it onto a 7" x 5" but decided the simple approach was the best. If you would like to try this technique I can recommend a DVD by Carol Cockbain of The Craft Barn, or watch a demonstration by (another) Carol from The Craft Station if you catch her at a show (please note, I have no affiliation with either shop).

Now, what am I going to do for next week's Challenge???

Bah! Humbug! time #5

And I'm only just in time this week, but only just is good enough! The theme is Buttons and Bows, a tricky one for me since I rarely use either, but I remembered I had kept a red knotted ribbon which came on a special jar of chutney given to us at Christmas, and while rummaging in my embellishments I found these winter buttons by Dovecraft. Snowmen stamps I have in abundance (this is by FunStamps) and the words are from a custom made stamp.

ETA: What a good thing I checked back after posting the link on the Bah! Humbug! board.....I was in such a hurry I forgot to include the picture!!

Willow Pattern card

On one of the stitching forums I frequent, someone invented a new word which was so graphic that we all adopted it. Many of us stitch ornaments for the Christmas tree, but once stitched they are still just bits of fabric until they are mounted over card, or backed and stuffed like little pillows, with cording round the edge and a means of hanging them. We needed to differentiate between 'I have finished this ornament' meaning, 'I have finished the decorative stitching on the fabric', and 'I have finished this ornament and it's ready for the tree'. Someone identified the final finishing off process as ornamentifying and it is such a useful word! I am now proposing a derivative for the cardmakers' vocabulary: cardifying. It would be used after you have gathered together disparate embellishments, images, background papers and cardstock for a card and later finally assemble them as a complete, ready-to-send item. I realise it doesn't have quite the same impact as ornamentifying because there's usually a much shorter time scale involved (I've known ornaments be ornamentified years after they were stitched) but to prove my point, here is an example of a card which was stitched last week and cardified this morning!


This is the front, covered in paper from a book of oriental designs published by Search Press. The tie is soft round cord from my stash, looped round and fastened with a lark's head and then knotted, with two brass charms added to the tails. It slips off the card to reveal...

...the inside with a stitched panel and the greeting by Funstamps using Versafine ink in Majestic blue . The righthand panel then opens to reveal.....

...the second and third panels of the Willow Pattern Story. These were so much fun to stitch, using DMC embroidery thread in shade 798. The card is for a friend celebrating a Very Special Birthday soon (but I can't say any more) and I think I'll be doing more like it just for the fun! All patterns from Form-A-Lines, which is the third site in a trio with Pinbroidery and Stitching Cards (yes, there is a reason for the separate sites but it's a long story).